Page:Hindu Feasts Fasts and Ceremonies.djvu/151

Rh every vice, every crime, in fact everything wicked, is set down by the ordinary Hindu to the ascending power of the Lord of the Kali age. These notions entertained by the people must not be entirely set down to be wholly superstitious. In every one of the Hindu Puranas the Kaliyuga (or the dark age) 1s described as the worst period of everything wrong, unhappy or miserable. The Vishnu Purana, Bhagavata, Devibhagavata, and a number of religious works give a glowing description of the numerous miseries reserved for mankind in the Kaliyuga, and the ordinary Hindu bred up from his infancy in the Puranic lore has accepted these beliefs as part and parcel of his existence, and anything going wrong in his own household or round about him is set down to the influence of the Kali age. Parasara describes the evils of Kaliyuga in detail in the Vishnu Purana. We will give some of the most prominent ones here:— The strict rules of caste, order and observances will never exist. The rights enjoined by the four Vedas will perish. The rules of conduct between the husband and wife between the preceptor and his disciple will be disregarded. Marriage rules will be set at naught. Every